When you rate the most important aspects of your ministry, what would you rank at the top? Balancing multiple demands can make life in ministry a constant challenge, but faithfulness in small things is not without its rewards. We may be tempted to count our sermons and lectures, our public...
How many people do you know named, “Joe” or “Joseph”? If you were celebrating your 60th birthday this year, you were more likely to have been born with a boy named Joseph in your graduating class – the name’s popularity peaked in 1956! Over 2 million people in the US have the first name...
Much of life comes as a given, but God gives us so much room for innovation. When asked to preach for a colleague recently, it meant returning to the pulpit after a four-month hiatus, the longest break in preaching since I became a pastor in 1994. The assignment had the usual “givens” – the...
On a flight home from Dallas to Philly, my sister was trapped next to the window seat by a man who introduced himself as a “Debunker.” She was already weary from travel, so she let down her guard just long enough to take the bait. “What is a ‘Debunker’? she asked.
What do you miss most about your childhood summers? Mine followed that rhythm of work and rest, of hoeing rows of corn and riding bikes, of weeding and mowing through the hot days that lengthened into long evenings of kick-the-can and catching lightning bugs. Now there still is plenty of grass...
Some problems cannot be solved; most people cannot be fixed. Perhaps you, like me, have encountered the frustration that comes from trying to solve the unsolvable problems in your life or fix the unfixable people in your home or in your church.
Good questions crop up in the most unlikely places. Late one night, as I pulled up to the drive-thru window at a local fast-food restaurant, I was asked the puzzling question, “Are you an environmentalist?” Needless to say, I was caught off-guard! So I shook my head and smiled, drove away and...
One of the guilty pleasures of being clergy is visiting other churches “undercover” where nobody knows that I’m a pastor. I get to sit in a pew and worship like everyone else, and I get to experience the welcome and fellowship of a church.
